Subscribing to the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) Updates is one way to keep your finger on the pulse of what the UN is looking to the NGO community to do or where to be involved.
Is an inter-agency programme of the United Nations mandated to “promote and develop constructive relations between the United Nations and civil society organizations.” As such it differs from the NGO Office of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) which works specifically with ECOSOC NGOs and DESA and the NGO Office of DPI (Department of Public Information) which focuses on providing the weekly briefings for NGOs and, by using various communication tools including radio, television, print, the Internet, videoconferencing, is mandated to promotes global awareness and greater understanding of the work of the United Nations.
So DPI looks to CSOs to disseminate more information about the UN. DESA looks to find ways to facilitate the engagement of NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC and to satisfy Member States issues and concerns in that arena whereas NGLS is there to promote meaningful civil society engagement in UN processes and has a system-wide perspective due to its inter-agency nature.
In particular, the “NGLS has a specific commitment to enhance the participation of southern and underrepresented civil society actors.”
It provides helpful publications in addition to its Updates and encourages the participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) by providing current information, facilitating dialogues and generally providing information that is of specific interest to CSOs.
You can sign up for their updates on their home page and stay connected in that way.
If you are already in a proactive mode, managing your own outreach strategies with target offices, Missions and UN agencies, then the NGLS will help with great general information keeping you aware of the larger UN-CSO environment.
For the international activist, the NGLS is another great resource to add to your Blog Roll or Bookmarks!
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